


Where

by Arsenic



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-11
Updated: 2006-09-11
Packaged: 2021-01-13 15:10:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21152711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsenic/pseuds/Arsenic
Summary: Challenge: snape/spike, cereal





	Where

**Author's Note:**

> Written for hpshortfics

Spike doesn't know how it is that he's always surviving these supposedly apocalyptic apocalypses, but at 219 years old, he knows enough not to question.

He does not think about the blue of Illyria's hair and eyes streaming back, too vivid in the night sky as she took out more demons than the rest of them put together. He does not think about the way Angel's ashes tasted familiar as they blew through the air, into Spike's nose and mouth. He does not think about Gunn's war cries. He hops a plane to the continent, so very sure he's going to Buffy. That's what this was all about, wasn't it?

Only it seems it wasn't, because although Spike deplanes in Italy, that's not where he stays. It's sunny, and warm, and the air doesn't smell a thing like Southern California. Spike rents the fastest car they'll let him have and drives until sunrise. He's going north. He can't say why, or to where.

By dawn the air is cooler, cleaner, and Spike begins to feel like maybe he should be where he is. Or at least, maybe he shouldn't be anywhere else. He holes up in a hotel to wait for nightfall.

Two nights later and he's left the car behind for the chunnel. He now knows where he's going. He still doesn't know why, but that's okay. Two hundred and nineteen years and he's only known that maybe a fifth of the time. Maybe.

He can't see the castle, never has been able to, but he has all night to sit by the ruins and wait. Severus shows sometime around three. He's swathed in his customary black. He stands out against the night only in that he is darker than the cover of sky. He says, "I believed you to be in California."

Spike shrugs. "Good to see you too, mate."

Severus sneers, not saying anything. Spike says, "Look, I've been traveling a bit-"

Severus begins to walk away. Spike follows.

*

Severus flicks a lazy _imperio_ over Spike and orders, "Feed," unbuttoning his collar just enough to let Spike's teeth settle over his jugular. He waits until he's nearly unsure he'll be able to _finite_ the Unforgivable and says, "Stop."

Spike, of course, does. With his last bit of energy, Severus Compels him to the other end of the room, throws a bit of basic Binding Magic in that direction, and releases him from the curse.

Spike looks at him unhappily. "I'm haven't gone and lost my soul _again_, you know."

Severus assesses him a bit coldly. Of course Severus knows that. He would have used far stronger Binds had he not. "And that's supposed to mean something?"

Spike huffs. "Is it possible you've become less fun while I was away?"

"I didn't have your incomparable wit and infallible sense of mischief to keep me light-hearted," Severus says. He keeps his tone so dry that he has to swallow. His throat is parched.

"You _like_ my wit," Spike tells him, perfectly confident of this fact.

Severus does, too. It doesn't have the sophistication of his own, but that merely allows him to say things about Spike's arrested development. Otherwise, it has a bitter quality to it that is oddly soothing. "Why are you here?"

Spike runs his tongue over his front incisors. "I missed the taste of ground snake fangs."

Severus smirks.

*

Severus talks a good game (or well, sometimes he does, when he's talking) but Spike wakes up on his second morning at the school to find a box of cereal and the note, "I know you eat this swill."

It's not Spike's favorite, but the thought of Severus going anywhere near a Muggle market is amusing enough for him to forgive this small oversight. He eats two bowls dry, not entirely sure how Severus does that thing where little green alien-looking things appear and bring food. He'll have to ask later.

He wonders if he can get pig's blood put on the menu. Severus probably wouldn't appreciate the inquiry. Spike considers asking anyway.

Severus comes back sometime before night falls. Spike figures he's in a pretty good mood when he allows Spike to laugh at the comments he scribbles in red all over a set of essays, only snapping twice.

Spike says, "You got me the wrong kind of cereal."

"B-negative?"

"Oh, very clever."

Severus doesn't say anything, a sure sign that he thinks it is.

*

On the fourth night Severus takes Spike over the side of his sofa before flipping him over and letting him drink again. He forgets to force Spike away from him afterward, _forgets_ certainly, because he can't have any other motivation.

In the morning Spike awakens with him, and eats his cereal silently, and when Severus says, "I take it you plan to burden me with your presence for some time to come," he shrugs.

"Have any apocalypse type things I could get my hands in on?"


End file.
